Twist it up. Turn it around. Shift your perspective. Change your life

Big teachers in small bodies

Recently I’ve been feeling in a rut. My yoga training is over and what becomes of it remains to be seen. My job, while it pays my bills (barely), does not offer me what I need to keep my soul alive. Even my body has felt uneasy, shifting with the movement of Time while my mind struggles against the changes. One evening, in the midst of rehashing the things in my world that cause me dis-ease, I was reminded of a profound teaching I was offered by the most unlikely teacher—a three year old neighbour boy named Alex.

In the waning heat of a June evening, my partner and I sat in the backyard sharing stories of our days when, from between the houses, came a sound I could not recognize. Curious, I leaned over the side of the chair and peered down the driveway that cut the space between our house and the neighbour’s. There he was, Alex, our three year old neighbour. He was seated on a plastic truck and the truck was situated within a deep groove in the driveway. Walking that pathway is precarious enough, but pedalling a small plastic truck up an incline seemed impossible.

Alex, sage-like grin spread wide across his face, settled himself comfortably on the truck’s seat and planted his feet firmly upon the pedals. With fierce determination, he began pumping his legs up and down which only served to spin the wheels of the truck that continued to rest on the spot deep within the driveway’s trench. Alex, like so many of us, was very much stuck in a rut. His approach to the situation, however, became his teaching.

This small boy revealed to me that there is a different way to experience being in a rut. He did not do what I so often do—he did not kick up a fuss. He did not get angry, or huff and puff in frustration, and he never gave up. Instead, Alex grinned and kept on going. To my amazement, he was having a great time sitting on the spot spinning his wheels. He was fully engaged in the process at that time, in that place, seeming not to care whether he ever reached his desired destination or not. He was living fully in the moment, in his body, and it was perfect.

Eventually the wheels of the truck gripped the pavement and Alex was slowly propelled forward only to be thrown off course by his brother who hurled himself into Alex’s path. Isn’t that just like life?

What did I get from watching this small boy work his way up the incline of a deeply rutted driveway? I got a pure example of what the Masters mean when they teach that it isn’t the destination that matters, it’s the process and how we live within that process that counts. Alex taught me that it is possible to be fully engaged, alive and joyful, even when it feels like I’m going nowhere in my life. He taught me that going nowhere is indeed the destination if I am fully awake to what is going on at every turn. And he taught me that every moment, every situation, is cause for celebration simply because I am alive.